GIRLS, Season 2, Episode 5

This episode of Girls was a departure from previous episodes of GIRLS because it almost felt like Hannah was stepping into a parallel world of what her life could look like with an older, responsible, man who is successful and well-off. After seeing this episode I got a sense that we would not an episode quite like this because it was so far from Hannah’s reality. It was very different to see an episode almost solely with with Lena Dunham and guest star Patrick Wilson. This “perfect, straight guy” comes in the form of Dr. Joshua who seems like he’s got this life together in a trendy Brooklyn brownstone in one of the hippest and youngest neighborhoods in the boroughs. He’s 42 and she’s 24 and finds him incredibly attractive and handsome.

The episodes beginning with Dr. Joshua complaints that someone from Grumpy’s was leaving their garbage in his garbage cans (because yet again Hannah proves she lacks responsibility through losing her Grumpy’s dumpster key). She goes to the brownstone owned by Dr. Joshua after he almost comes to physical blows with Ray and admits her vice with finding random garbage cans to put the trash in around the neighborhood. After the two share some lemonade she goes in to kiss Dr. Joshua leading to a 48- hour affair with the separated doctor.

You gotta love that after they have their first sexual experience he offers to cook her a steak dinner and gave her a tour of the brownstone. As she is ready to leave, Dr. Joshua begs her to stay at this home. Seriously at this point the episode I was thinking that his doctor was possibly trying t0 take pleasure in using emotional young 20-something woman for night of sexual passion. Hannah seemed game for it because let’s be honest she was hooking up with a 40 year old separated doctor who is well off and buys sweaters that cost approximately the value of her rent. She seems motivated to take this as another experience she could value and eventually use for her writings.

You know this relationship got seriously if Hannah is playing hooky from work (as if she was really in the mood to go into Grumpy’s and work another 8-hour shift dealing with Ray’s obnoxious attitude on America’s youth.) She starts her day with playing topless ping pong with Dr. Joshua. Who by the way get very upset with Hannah when she calls him Josh (something about a childhood trauma with a kid named Josh) seriously grow up, your 42! This ping pong match lead to them having sex.

As her days goes on she gets to experience a shower that turns into a sauna where she become a human gummy worm after she passes out and Dr. Joshua has to come to the rescue to wake her from the steam. It seemed to me that she emotionally got all of the negative thoughts out from that long steam. Something organic occurs with Hannah as she gets emotional towards the end of her day with Dr. Joshua. She asked him if he was really going to work the next day and he said yes. That he wouldn’t be able to take two days off. She notices that Joshua isn’t really telling her a lot about himself.

Hannah comes to realization that she wants to be happy like her friends. She explains to Joshua that before she had made a promise to herself that would take in experiences or everyone to read. She would face physically pain for the art of the having sex with a guy. It leads her to emotionally break in front of Dr. Joshua that helps her to understand that she wants everything that people want.

Hannah awakes the next morning leaving the beautiful life that she realizes she might not be ready for but before she leaves the Brooklyn Brownstone, she takes the Doctor’s trash and moves on with her life. So poetic!